1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of computer networks, and more particularly, to a system and method for handling network partition situations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nodes in a computer cluster often work together to share data or storage devices. The nodes may need to keep in communication with each other through a network to coordinate access to the shared data, e.g., to ensure that multiple nodes do not attempt to write to the same data location at the same time, which could cause the data to become corrupted. Problems can arise when the network becomes partitioned such that some of the nodes in the cluster cannot communicate with other nodes in the cluster because then the nodes may not be able to communicate to coordinate access to the shared data.
To handle network partition situations, the system needs to perform an arbitration process to decide which nodes should remain in the cluster and which nodes should leave the cluster. One conventional arbitration technique is to use a set of SCSI disk drives as coordination points. Two nodes in different partitions may race to win control of a majority of the coordination point disk drives. Whichever node wins the majority is allowed to remain in the cluster, and the other node exits the cluster.